The Pitfalls of Working from home – And how to Avoid them

When girl group, Fifth Harmony released their hit song ‘work from home’ in summer 2016, the song (and the video) made working from home seem like a pretty good idea! A lot of people think that working from home is a great idea – that is until they actually do it. Heads filled of visions of themselves watching Jeremy Kyle whilst typing away, cappuccino in hand, popping out to do whatever they fancy at a moment’s notice – many people find that the dream doesn’t live up to the reality! These are the biggest pitfalls people run into when they join the ranks of the home-workers – and what you can do to prevent them…

Loneliness – When you make the move from the busy, bustling office to just you on your own, you may not realise how you may feel quite lonely. Despite many colleagues being annoying, being on your own in the day is quite a big adjustment to make. To stop the loneliness from getting to you, arrange social functions – meeting up with a friend for a coffee, going out to a fitness class, anything that gets you out and about with other people will help immensely – even join a club or a course which you may have been interested in, and make some new like-minded friends!

Space – This is an important one – when your home becomes the place you work in, you must take care to make sure that work doesn’t take over your life and that your life doesn’t get in the way of your work! Particularly if you have a family, you need to keep the two things separate. Ideally, you need a separate space to work in which you can close the door on at the end of the working day and go and enjoy yourself. A garden office is a good idea if you have the space, as it completely separates your home from your work – have a look at the various options here – http://www.gardenspaces.co.uk/.

Routine– Being at home can make it easy to neglect yourself – when you don’t have to get up and get ready to go out to work, it is easy to spend all day in a dressing gown, and neglect eating habits. With no set structure or routine, you need to have the ability to be extremely self-disciplined. Treat your home office as you would treat any other office – try to dress professionally, schedule breaks, and make sure that you take time for breaks to eat and drink healthily. If it helps, draw up a timetable of what you are aiming to achieve in the day and make sure you stick to it as best you can. Set alarms to remind you when it is time to finish – ‘go home’ and close the door on the office for the day.